p. 60 | Untitled article by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Jan 19, 1864

Are the Dead Conscious? No. 3.

By R. F. Cottrell

In chap. x, 19, Job speaks again of what would have been his condition, had he died in infancy, He says, "I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death a land of darkness as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness."

This testimony agrees with other inspired declarations, that man in death returns to the earth as he was, and is as though he had not been. In case he had died, Job did not think he should have been in heaven, nor in a burning hell, nor yet in a comfortable conscious state in hades, but in a land of darkness as darkness itself. He was a good man, as is evident, not only from the book that bears his name, but from the allusion to him in Ezekiel; consequently, if any one would go to heaven at death, he would. If popular theology be true, he would go to heaven at death. Upon this supposition, his remonstrance, his earnest pleading that his "miserable comforters" would desist from wearying him, would amount to this: My days on earth are few, I shall soon die. Do let me alone, do let me take a little comfort, before I go—to heaven!

But in his address to the Almighty, recorded in chap. vii, 20, 21, he says, "For now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." Had this been spoken to men, it might be replied, that they would seek in vain for Job, after his death, because he would have left the earth and gone to heaven. But he speaks to God: "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." Had Job lived in these days, he could not have escaped the brand of "Infidelity." But as it would not look well to charge so ancient a servant of God with infidelity, some, in these days, have excused him by saying, "This was all owing to Job's profound ignorance."

In chap. xiv, 7, he draws a contrast between the cutting down of a tree and the death of a man, as follows: "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof shall not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it shall bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?"

To this grave question of inspiration, which seems to challenge the wisdom of man for an answer, the writer of a popular tract which I once read, very pertly replied, "If he is a good man, he is in heaven, if a bad man, he is in hell." He would have shown greater reverence for the sacred scriptures, had he read the inspired answer which immediately follows the question. "As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." The argument is this: The tree that is cut down, may not lose its vitality, but may sprout again. But man in death wasteth away. He is like the water that disappears by evaporation in the heat of the sun. Its particles yet exist, but the water has disappeared and cannot be found. So man is dissolved in death, and mingles with the dust out of which he was taken. As a man he is not to be found. But the vapor which ascends from the drying up of water, may be condensed and the water reproduced; and the power of God can bring man again from the dust. Job was no Sadducee, though he thus spake. His next words are, "O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret, till thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." Job's prayer was heard. He is hidden in the grave, where he will remain till God's wrath is past. The time is set when he will be remembered. He will wait in the grave till the appointed time for his change to immortality to come, at the resurrection of the just. Then the trump of God shall call, and Job will answer—he will come forth a glorious and immortal being.

In another place, chap. xvii, 13, he says, "If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust."

"Oh! how gloomy, how gloomy!" says one.

Yes death is gloomy; it is an enemy. It comes in consequence of sin, and there is nothing cheering or lovely about it. But the monster shall be slain. The hope of the good old patriarch is not lost, though all men should fail to "see it." Soon his triumphant faith breaks forth in the following strain. "*O, that my words were now written! O, that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen

and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms devour this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.*"

His hope was not that he should go down into the earth, but that he should come up out of it, when the Redeemer of men should make his glorious advent. This has ever been the true hope of the church, a hope now soon to be realized. R. F. COTTRELL.